In a scene straight out of a light beer commercial, a group of beachgoers built a make shift slip ’n’ slide on a Sunset Cliffs beach and spent the afternoon gliding into the ocean on tubes, boards, and even an inflatable pineapple. On that warm Sunday in late June, which saw two wedding ceremonies on the cliffs and several teenagers jumping off them, an Ocean Beach woman’s birthday idea bloomed into a huge beach party where everyone took turns being a kid again.
“It was actually an idea I had – I had seen others do it on a smaller scale, but I wanted to be able to do it way bigger,” said Alex White, who celebrated her 28th birthday slip sliding away. “When we invited people, we made sure to say this was an adult birthday with a slip ’n’ slide.”
To build the 70-foot-long slide, White recruited her boyfriend Nat Greene and he brought along his friend Marshall Fice. They went out Sunday morning and bought 100-foot-long by 10-foot-wide plastic sheeting that was 6 mm thick, and then threw in some inflatable toys and environmentally friendly dish soap – to improve slipperiness. The birthday team hauled the supplies down the steep trail to No Surf beach, dug out two trenches, buried the sides of the plastic, and then tested the results. It went rather smoothly. “It took about an hour and a half for two of us to set it up,” Greene said. “Our friends Daniele Fice and Brittany Raine supplied the cookies, Rice Krispies treats, and refreshments for everyone. It was a team effort for sorting out the logistics.”
By early afternoon, the beach started to fill up with partygoers and the slipping, sliding, and slithering began. “Everyone had a blast, and it was great to see a whole bunch of adults turn into giddy kids again,” White said. “In typical OB fashion, we invited the surrounding groups on the beach (whom we didn’t know) to participate as well. It was an awesome way to make new friends and for everyone to have some fun.”
The only downside to the birthday party happened after it finished. The group had to lug everything back up the cliff, which took about 10 trips. “We wanted to be sure that we left the beach cleaner than how we found it and to treat the beach just as well as it had treated us that day,” White said. “I do want to remind everyone who goes to the beach, please make sure you pack everything up and leave the beach spotless.”
The couple, who live in Ocean Beach, loves to spend time at Sunset Cliffs and No Surf is one of their favorite spots to spend a day relaxing on the sand. “We try to catch at least a sunset from somewhere on the cliffs at least once or twice a week to remind ourselves of how lucky we are to live here,” White said.